Construction of Hyperloop’s Nevada Test Track Revealed

Construction of Hyperloop’s Nevada Test Track Revealed

FOOTAGE capturing the construction of Virgin Hyperloop One’s test track in the Nevada Desert has
been shared by the project’s development team.

“Hyperloop” is an experimental high speed transport system that was first proposed by Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk. Pods containing passengers and
cargo are loaded onto transporters that travel at airline speed in pressurised tubs using electric propulsion and magnetic levitation.

Completed in the spring of last year, the 500 metre (1,640-foot) test track near Las Vegas has since been used to test prototypes of the passenger and
cargo pods.

Built in just 10 months, engineers believe that a further 1.2 mile (2km) extension will be needed to test Hyperloop’s theoretical top speed of 700 miles
per hour.

There are only two other operational Hyperloop test tracks around the world. Elon Musk’s SpaceX currently has a 1 mile (1.6 kilometre) facility within
its California headquarters. The other is a scaled-down 100-foot (30 metres) long track in Delft, the Netherlands.

Nevertheless, various governments and private entrepreneurs are keen to build their own test tracks. There are talks of another, 8 mile (13 kilometres)
test track in California, one in Canada and a full-scale, 3 mile (5 kilometres) track in the Netherlands.

Virgin Hyperloop One hope to have operational systems in service by 2021.

Above: There are currently only three Hyperloop tracks, with more underway (image courtesy of Virgin Hyperloop One).